UFC put on a great free TV card with UFC Live 5: Hardy vs. Lytle, and we spend a good part of this week's show sending off Chris Lytle, pondering Dan Hardy's future, and praising the incredible Ben Henderson vs. Jim Miller fight. We discuss the rest of the card too, but those guys get most of the love.Then we get into all of this week's news, including UFC's deal with The Fox Network, Rich Franklin's new mindset, Golden Glory's contract issues, Bellator 48, and the unfortunate passing of local MMA trainer Shawn Tompkins.Check out our website at http://www.thehammermma.com or Subscribe via Itunes.
The Hammer MMA Radio
The Hammer MMA Radio - Episode 54
[music] Hello and welcome to the Hammer. I'm your host Dave. Turn this always by my co-hosts. Greg, how's it going guys? And Steve. It is Wednesday, August 17th, and I forgot what month it is, but... Not before yet. We're going to cover UFC Live 5. We're going to talk a little bit about Bellator 48, and we've got a ton of news today. But first, let's start with a little bit of a sad news story for us. Sean Tompkins, who is a pillar of the MMA community. He's been a striking coach for such strikers as in Canada, Sam Stout, Marcominek, and Klein. All those guys who trade up in London, London and Toronto. And he's trained at Extreme Co-Terer. He was invited to train and viewed our Bell for it in Wanda Lo Silva. He was in Hamilton on Saturday to corner one of his guys in a fight. Went to sleep and never woke up. It appears to be hard issues. Our condolences to the family. Sean Tompkins was one of the most respected striking coaches in the world. And he's just a terribly sad thing for a guy who's 37 years old and to be at that level of shape. And it's terrible and ridiculous. And he's obviously done a lot for the local MMA scene. Now that it's legal in Ontario and there's all these fighters that he's trained on. He knows so many guys. He's got a legacy. Yeah, so many guys in Ontario that are training. If you wanted to become a great striker in Ontario, that's the guy you went and talked to. So, I mean, it's a blow to the community. And as far as the Global Warrior Show on Saturday, it wasn't Hamilton. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get in to see it. And I can't find the results. Yeah, I'm sitting more online. So, I deal with it. There was fights. A couple of guys we like, some guys we've seen on some local shows. Please, some guys you've interviewed. Josh Hill. Josh Hill. One unanimous decision. And Adrian Woolley lost split decision. Yeah. No, it's Woolley. Split decision is Woolley. It is, yes. He's a gritty, gritty fighter. Yeah, of course, we couldn't make it to the show this past weekend. But hopefully, we can see those guys fighting in the near future. So, we go forward to UFC Live 5, which was this Sunday night. This was Dan Hardy versus Chris Lydall. Now, Dan Hardy was on the three fight, losing streak going into this. So, his career was on the line, you would think. Chris Lydall decided to put his career on the line to as well. He said, "You know what? I'm turning 37. I've got four children. I've earned half a normal, close to half a million dollars in fight bonuses." He's been a full-time last one. He's been a full-time firefighter. This entire time. He's opened gyms. We've covered stories about Chris Lydall. We've covered stories of him from doing everything from beating up chavs in England. Yes. That's sort of my favorite story. Two, opening up gyms to train the local youth. I mean, Chris Lydall's guys' fingers in a lot of pies. Great guy. Well loved in the sport. Twenty fights never got a title shot, but he won the respect of it. Well, it's very fitting that you beat up an English guy this Saturday night, too. It's not an English chav. It's not an English chav. No, it's not a chav. Dan Hardy is cool. So Chris Lydall decided that he was going to retire win or lose. So both guys, I guess, had a lot to prove going into this fight. They both promised it would be a stand-up striking war. And they were right. It was a good brawl. Better one for Chris Lydall. Yeah, it was an exciting fight. Dan Hardy's game plan was nonexistent. See, Dan Hardy came out in the first round looking pretty strong. He had some good kicks going, and he looked to be scoring some heavy shots in Lydall. Lydall just stayed patient, counter shot at him, kept landing combos, wearing him down. In the second round, Hardy just stopped throwing kicks. I guess he got lured into the brawl. Lydall solidly out-pointed of him. In the third round, Hardy was down losing. It looked like it was in bad shape. So he decided to dive for a takedown with a man to go. Not just a takedown, the worst takedown I've ever seen. He died from way too far out. With his head all the way up. And then that wouldn't even take down James Tony. Lydall stuff this so, so casually and easily. And then tapped him out. I've never seen a better sprawl than this. It was literally like if you wanted to see a picture of how to do a good sprawl, this was how easy Dan Hardy made it. For Lydall just threw him down, put on the guillotine choke. As you'd expect, everyone's got a guillotine choke and you've seen now. And you know, four minutes and 16 seconds and around three, Dan Hardy's tapping out. So four or five losing streak for Dan Hardy. Chris Lydall retires. He got submission of the night and five of the night. There's some question about the five of the night and submission of the night to me. Yeah, because this card was awesome. I mean, they were four or five. Oh, this is the five of the card. Maybe not a lot of people watched it, but Dan, this was a great card. However, Lydall got the going away gift because it was such a story. And he has 25, so he never got a title shot. But everyone knows Lydall. And he made upwards of half a million dollars just in fight bonuses. He did pretty well for himself. You know, not the sort of guy you could put into the Hall of Fame, but a guy who did a really, really good game. There's serious talk about whether he can go into the Hall of Fame. If they did it, it would only because I would say only based on the number of bonuses that he got, but that's vile. Everyone, everyone in that Hall of Fame is a former champion. Do you know what? But like not everyone in the baseball. And there's like six of the famous Babe Ruth. I'm saying that this is a Hall of Fame with six guys in it. And that list is too short for Chris Lydall. Fair enough. But I'm just saying like not everyone's a home run hitter. The fact that you've got more bonuses than anyone in UFC history. And the fact that you, you know, you fought as many times as BJ Penn. Yeah. Well, there are guys, and there are guys in all sports Hall of Fame today. I haven't won a championship. Oh, I'm just saying not in this one yet. I'm saying that eventually you could expand in that. But I mean, he got a great send off. Do you want to make an argument for expanding it? Lydall's a guy who makes that hard. Okay, I'll give you that. And he went out really well. I headlined and won his last fight, won some more bonuses which he's known for. Gave a gift on the way out of a bonus to Dan Hardy. Oh, yeah, Dan Hardy got half of the best fight bonus. Yeah. So, yeah, so good for Chris Lydall. Lydall's talking about making a run for State Senate. All the power of the world to him. Yep. Go for it. Go for Chris Lydall. Dan Hardy, fourth fight as a loss. He should have been caught, however, because it was a war and because of the fight of the night. Zufa decided to show clemency. There's some question about it. You don't lie. Four fights in the law. And if I have four fights in a row, you lose. Who can you be? For a marketable fighter. Yeah, but I mean... We've kind of been arguing about this before. I know he's a marketing provider. I know he only gets paid $25,000 a fight. But with that being said, he lost to Rumble, who up Russell him. He lost to Condit, who knocked him out. And he's a point fighter who just lost to a point fighter after getting out pointed. Diving for a miracle takedown and getting tapped out. He's very popular in a market they're serious about. Yes. And I mean, how many British stars do they have to? Fair enough. And I think by him, they've lost half of them. I mean, for the legitimacy of the sport, I don't see how you put the guy with. There are times of guys in that division. You're looking for a guy for him to beat now to try to keep the guy's career. Oh, Amir Sedala. Amir Sedala is a good choice spot on the star. I think Sedala would beat him. I don't think it would be so long. What makes a difference if he loses? What makes it so you're saying that the only fight that Dan Hardy should take is one that he's going to win? Well, what I'm saying is if you're going to let the guy lose five, six, seven times in a row. But there's no guarantee he's going to lose either. That's the thing. That's why this isn't pro wrestling. Yeah. But I mean, if you're going to try to keep the guy's career alive, you're going to keep him alive. Why is a business owner, would it be your intention to keep the guy's career alive? It's up to him to keep his career alive. But it's up to you to find him, you know, changing make money from him. And if he's making you money, it's fully worthwhile to you to have him keep fighting until he stops making money. I don't think the guy's worth protecting by giving him a can. I think you should give him a real fighter. And I think that if he loses, if he loses, you got to say, you know what? You've lost five in a row. I don't even care if the next one's five of the night. You got to go. You got to go. You got to go. If he loses to Sedala and that fight still made money, then you know what? You give him another fighter. And if he fights until he stops making you money. Or he's holding the division back. If division's crowded like the lightweight division, then yeah, you can start cutting guys and trimming the fat a little bit. But honestly, he's a marketable fighter. He's a marketable fighter. There are tons of guys that are still below him in the division. And I mean, you can't say-- There's a lot more guys with four-fight losing streaks in Walter Wade? There's a lot of guys who are lower in the division than he heard there. Is Sean Pearson higher than Dan Hardy? Is Matt Riddle higher than Dan Hardy? Those guys are on four-fight losing streak. No, but those guys are on higher than Dan Hardy. There's guys like the Marcus Johnson who's never beaten a real name. Yeah. Who you could put in a fight with Hardy in England and it'd be a good fight and it'd probably be fairly close. Right? But wouldn't be close with Dan Hardy now. I'm not saying he's a great fighter. A horrible hole in this game. I was screaming at the TV for that take down. I still think he is a good fighter. The problem with him is that he does not have a good game plan. He has a terrible game plan. His camp is apparently completely unable to teach him either submission or take down defense. And I mean, as far as being a striker, he's not a knockout fighter. He can't just flip the lights out. I mean, it's not like Anderson Silver was knocking people out with jobs and front kicks. This guy's hitting people out with power shot over and over again. Can't get the knockout because he can't hit the guy in the chin. And he's not a good point fighter. He'll completely lose his whole strategy. He's actually really bad at that. He can't evade shots and he can't stuff takedowns. Anyone in the world could out point this guy. You know, like he's lost to literally three different style match ups that should have been on paper, okay style match ups. I mean, he got crushed all three times. I'm going to say in his defense, I think he fought a terrible fight and has been on a bad losing streak. The worst guy he's fought in years is Chris Lydell. And Chris Lydell is no slouch. So he does, I guess, if they're good to give him another chance, I'm cool with it. But you can't put him too high up the card. Well, no, obviously not. But there are tons of guys you can give him. So we go forward to to me what should have been the butterfly of the night. Jim Miller and Ben Henderson. Oh, absolutely. I loved it. Oh, wow. This fight was amazing. We expected to be good. It was as good as I hoped. Ben Henderson came in. This is the best Ben Henderson I've ever seen. Oh, yeah. I love Ben Henderson. I've seen him fight a lot of times. This Ben Henderson was by far the best. Jim Miller, he said, "You know what? Everyone gave all of air too much respect against me, so I tapped them out. Everyone said that come all charoos and these WC guys could be knocked out. So I knocked them out. Well, I think I'm going to try to tap out this untappable fighter, Ben Henderson." You can't tap out. You can't tap out Bendo. You cannot submit Bendo. And Miller tried really hard. Did that first round? Oh, my God. The submissions he pulled out, no disrespect to Miller at all on this fight. He fought a great fight. He put on some awesome submissions. It was super durable. He got a standing arm trap triangle on Bendo. Yeah. Bendo worked his way out of it. He got a guillotine choke on triangle. Bendo worked his way out of it. He got a heel hook on Bendo. Bendo worked his way out of it. And every time he worked his way out of it, he threw Miller on his back and started slamming him with elbow after elbow after elbow. By the end of the first round, Miller was bloody. By the second, he was dripping blood. This is what was missing in Henderson's game. Just that pure killer instinct. The killer instinct. And he was dropping elbows and going in for the kill. And I haven't seen him do that before. I've seen him fight great guys who fight well. But to go in for the kill. Maybe it's vicious. It's just beautiful. Bend Henderson is an enormous social relaxed guy. This is a guy who is great. Sometimes it takes a loss to go like Pettis to motivate you. Oh, yeah. I thought he was going to TK on Miller. I didn't think that Miller was going to survive this fight. The third round, when he was just savaging him, I was like, when's the sobbing? Well, I thought that the thing is with Miller is that he's a very, very tough guy. While I was watching this fight, I was like, "Bendo has this fight, no question. I don't think he's going to finish just because of how tough a guy Miller is." He came really close, but it's even more respect to Miller. Miller hasn't dropped any in as far as I can say. Miller was one of the elite guys in the division. Still is. Bend Henderson just happens to be more elite. Yeah. This Bend Henderson is on a different level. I said before the fight with Pettis, I was like, "I can't wait for Bend Henderson to get past Pettis because I want to see him with Frankie and Maynard." Yeah, absolutely. Unfortunately, Pettis was a real block. Now Henderson is starting to work his way back into that conversation. I know he's not there yet. He's getting very close. But this is a guy I want to see with Henderson. This is a guy I want to see with Edgar. These are fights I want to see with him. Yeah, absolutely. Your sure list of contenders now is Guida, Melvin Guillard, and Ben Henderson. Yeah. That's it. He's now top five. I'd say he's the fifth guy in the division right now. I can't see anybody in the lightweight division that would be able to actually beat Bendo, this Bendo, because he's got every possible tool. He's got those elbows. He's got the submission abilities. He's not invincible on his feet. His chin can be checked. I think Guillard would be a really tough fight for him. But honestly, I don't see Frankie Edgar or Gray Maynard being able to out wrestle and out point the guy. I think those are fights that this guy can win. And I mean, Guillard, Guillard's got holes in his games too. Let's see if he can really stuff Bend Henderson's takedown. Let's think. And Bend Henderson's power gets him. Keep him mind. Bendo's a wrestler. You know? I mean, it doesn't matter how many-- With Tyquanda. Yeah. It doesn't matter how many contenders get knocked out of this spot in lightweight. There's always awesome guys coming up. This division is just incredible. Actually, I would have given this fight a short list for Fight of the Year for a slightly more competitive-- Yeah, me too. Yeah, honestly, it might even be Fight of the Year contender without that. I don't think it-- to me, Frankie versus Maynard is still going to get the Fight of the Year so far. So far. But damn, this fight was close. The judges gave it 30, 27, 30, 26, and 29, 28. What fool had Jim Miller winning around? How did Jim Miller get around? I give the first rounds to Henderson still. But in that first round, it was a lot closer. And Miller had a very good submission attempt in it. I'm not going to get too up in arms over. To me, 30, 26 was the right score. Yeah. He was a little bit clubbed in the second and third rounds. And one of those rounds was definitely 10, 8. He's got punished in both. I scored 30, 26 as well. But I'm not going to get too freaked out about 29, 27. Yeah. And afterwards, Ben Harrison said he was going to take a page from GSP's book. He got on his knees. I thought he was going to ask for a title. Instead, he said, "I want my boys into the train with to have a shot at the FC. Dana, they're ready for the big time." He asked like that. You're probably going to get it. Selfless move. And the right move. Because if he asked for a title shot, he still wouldn't get it. No, he would. So next time he gets a win, he should ask for the title shot. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So impressive performance there. Should have got him $65,000. Unfortunately, Lydal got the good guy, a good buy gift. Donald Stroni versus Oliveira. Donald Stroni came out looking ferocious. He caught a beautiful hook to the body. Oliveira crumpled. Yeah. He nailed him with a knee to the head on the way down. And then immediately went for the kill. Ground and pound for the TKO at three minutes. This went exactly how I think everybody figured it was going to go. I don't think anyone saw Oliveira pulling, like, getting Sironi in a submission. Sironi's just... I thought Oliveira had a better chance than he really did. I mean, I was like, "You know what? So, Oliveira is good enough on the ground." And he showed some striking ability against Lance that. But Sironi just overpowered him. Oh, there is actually really good. I think Donald Stroni is just a better version of him. Yeah. Absolutely. So, knock on the knife for Sironi. This is thrown in nine months. Sironi's won three times in the UFC. So, so much for the myth that the WC guys can't hang. Ben Henderson's just knocked off one of the most elite. And Sironi's killing the middle card. And Ben Avidas looked like a monster on this card, too. Yeah, but he's not in lightweight against the UFC guys. He's still in fact. I'm just saying that the WC guys have come in and they're doing a great job. Yeah. So, all with respect to Walter Sironi. So, Dala versus Ludwig. Ludwig just solidly out-pointed. It's Dala. Better version of Dala, basically. So, it's more power in the first two rounds. So, Dala could not take the fight to the ground. In the third round, Ludwig was starting to gas. And so, Dala managed to out-point him a little bit for 29-28. But everyone saw it for Ludwig. Yeah. Yeah. So, then we go forward. On the, on the prelim cards that we watched, C.B. Dala-Wade versus Jared Hammond. Dala-Wade looked good in the first round. He was almost got the arm trap triangle. Hammond got out of it. He had good triangle defense. And the second round, Dala-Wade came forward like a house on fire. Just clubbed all the way to the ground and knocked him out with punches. His, uh, Hammond's striking was very, very good. Well, it's interesting because Dala-Wade is the guy that's going to, or in theory, training Bader and Aaron Simpson, which I think is amazing because Dala-Wade is known for a guy who doesn't have a good game plan. He's a wrestler who couldn't finish an arm trap triangle. And he got killed. He does have a cute chair. I mean, he had the best submission of last year. The guy's got a submission game. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But I mean, like, this guy, you know, he should be running your own gym. He should be running your own gym. He should be an AKA training with your buddies from university, like Kane Velasquez. I'm sorry. He's not the best guy. He's not. He's a prospect at best. Then we go forward to a guy who's not a prospect. Benavides versus Eddie Wyman. Benavides, despite being way outsized by Wyman. I didn't get to see this fight actually. It just murdered him on his feet. Wyman's corner was like, OK, he's going to go for the takedown this round. He's the guy who's bigger, stronger, and with better reach. What way classes was banned somewhere? Benavides looked incredible. It's just so fast and so agile. He's the second best guy in that division. Third best. He's a rise in the division. I think he's the second best guy in the division. You can't... You've never had anything like that in your eye? I think so. I think right now you're never going to find out. Well, and also because Benavides is never going to get another shot at Dominic Cruz after losing to him twice in the last couple years. To me, the highlight of... Go ahead, Dave, go ahead. To me, the highlight of this fight was when Benavides went for a flying knee on Eddie Wyman in the third round. Wyman managed to pick him up, catch the flying knee, pick him up, try to slam the guy, and Benavides still kept his feet. Both feet off the ground for at least 10 seconds. He still can get a takedown. I'm going back to the Benavides, the second best guy. Split decision with Dominic Cruz. Yeah. You know, your eye favor? Unanimous decision loss. I think that... I mean, Dominic Cruz is such a bad, bad matcher for Benavides. Like, I mean, it's a shame because, I mean, we saw what he did to Torres. Like, I mean, Benavides is awesome. He's just so short. And so they open up that flyweight division they're talking about for 2012. Oh, yeah. If he wants to go, he seems kind of sketchy about cutting the weight. He could go and be the champ there forever. He's the best candidate to do that, absolutely. He doesn't want to go, but if they do the flyweight division within a year, he's going to be the number one flyweight. Yeah, they should build that division around him. He'll get the pound for pound list based on him. Who can beat this guy flyweight? Well, yeah. Only one guy in the world can beat him at Bantamweight. He goes down against guys that are his size. Instead of taking on guys that are four inches taller than him? No way. Herman versus Noke. Herman got a vicious heel hook at four minutes in the first round. Noke tapped out. Yeah, he looked seriously hurt. Ronnie Marks versus Carlos Fumola. Oh, I was so excited about Fumola. I had to come out and just murder a dude. Licky murdered Seth Patrozelli. He looked at garbage. They cut over. Yeah, Marks just overpowered him. I'm telling this rule. I'm telling this rule of people, "Wait, do you see this guy? He's a killer. He's got crazy eyes. He's going to come out and just annihilate him on it." Well, he did have crazy eyes, but... Yeah, that's all he brought. Marks was just way too good of a grappler. Vomolo is way too dim and one-dimensional. And in the second round, Vomolo gassed. At that point, Marks just held him down for us to the fight. You know, it was decision 3, 27. Carcerus, Bruce Leroy, versus Jimmy Heddes. Carcerus, this is a typical story of his life. In the first round, he looked competent. In the second round, he looked exhausted. Had us choke him out. Dave's big quote during the show. He's like, "This guy would be a huge star if he could fight." Well, he's the most marketable of the guy I got. If he could ever actually win the fight. He comes out the guy looks like a star. He just can't put another. He comes out dressing the comfortable fit with the hat. He's dancing and he's throwing the hat in the crowd. And Vomolo is cheering for him. And then in the second round, he's like, "Ugh, ugh." And he just gets topped out. Cario, cardio, cardio. You know, I've seen this happen a couple times with this guy now. If you can't fix that hole in your game, young guys, you are. Hey, time to start moving down to the mimes. Yeah. You know, Strike Force needs guys in there, by the way, too. So Cole Miller versus TJ O'Brien. Miller picked up a beautiful guillotine choke in two minutes into the second round. This was, to me, the submission of the night. TJ O'Brien looked ferocious in the first round. Miller deposited him with a left hook, counter hook. O'Brien started trying to up kick him. Miller jumped to guard, flipped him over, swept him right into a triangle, or right into a guillotine choke. Just beautiful technique. You know, I like Cole Miller and it's just a shame that he's pretty inconsistent, that's important. But he could, I mean, like when he beat Ross Pearson, that was a real surprise to me. And the guy can fight. He just can't seem to, you know, get over that hump. Yeah. But, I mean, he's always going to have a job because he's never going to lose through in a row. Well, there's two. Yeah, there's two. There's multiple fights in a row. Don't throw any as a personal graduate the guy and still wants to fight him. So, you know, maybe they should fight soon. I'd like to see that. They're both coming off wins. Yeah. I'd like to see that. And I mean, if you beat Cole Miller, then you get to fight Jim Miller. And then you just graduate like that. Miller after Miller. And then Jacob Volkmann versus Danny Castillo. Volkmann was just a more powerful version. He picked up the unanimous decision, 29, 28. And then Figaroa, TKO, Ryan Hart with elbows and punches, 50 seconds in the round. I was really excited to see Figaroa fight again because him and Michael McDonald had an amazing undercard fight a few months back and he looked really good. I'm glad he got a win. So we go forward to the news. All right. So the big news this week is UFC has been with Spike TV for like six or seven years. They have just broken their ties with them. They're signing a deal with the Fox network and all the Fox and all their like affiliated networks. Well, what do you mean? This particularly means FX and fuel. Yes. Now, FX is home to a lot of edgy comedy shows and they're going to welcome UFC. Fuel doesn't get a lot of buys, but you know, you can put a lot of replays and stuff like that. The big thing is FX is a network that's really coming up. I mean, this is a network that has it. So we send you Philadelphia and Louie and the league and like really good shows. Honestly, if UFC goes on this network, half of my TV viewing is going to be on FX. Yeah. I mean, Sons of Anarchy. So much good stuff. I think it's a good fit. FX has got about double the rating of Spike. So, I mean, the bar is going to be a lot higher than you have when you have good shows and the other networks. That's right. Now. What do you say people want to see Sons of Anarchy more than a thousand weeks to die? Yeah. Yes. It's amazing. It's cool. So, but the big deal with this though, so we said that before that the big deal with this though is that the actual Fox network, like the real network, they have the option for up to four shows a year in prime time, which would be the first time that UFC's ever been on a network. Even the lowest rated show on Fox does more than any UFC shows ever done ever. Yeah. Well, there's going to be an issue of about control. Obviously with Fox and the NFL, they have a lot more production control than in theory you would ever want them to have over UFC. And a lot of guys like, let's say Joe Rogan are going to have to watch their P's and Q's. You can't go around calling reporters crude curse words anymore because on Fox that's not going to fly. But this is the chance to grow your audience. This is it. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Spike was a good fit, but this is double the viewers. So you're going to get some eyeballs. Oh, if they put on a half decent card with some, any somewhat recognizable names on prime time and a Saturday night on Fox, they will set their view a record by far. Well, this is huge, huge for them. They have like Kimbo and Gina Carano do the biggest, you know, the biggest reading of all time. Yeah. I mean, could you imagine if like a main UFC guy was on Fox? They could put a bunch of Lee Silva on there. Yeah. We'll be monstrous. Yeah. You don't want to put the main guys on because if you're putting cane vlogs, because on, why wouldn't you put them on pay on pay-per-view and get money? Yeah. Which is why I'm saying guys like, Baudley Silva, guys like this who are in title contention, but still have a name and they're exciting. Crow cop. Crow cop. Yeah. So I think it's a generally positive move because it's double the eyes. But whenever you're, whenever you're expanding your market that much, it's a positive move, but the bar is going to be higher. So your behavior is going to have to be better and you're going to have to show that you can hang with shows that are doing 1.2 and 1.3 ratings consistently. Yeah. We'll just see if they can coexist with the box like they did with, like they did with Spike. Spike was practically the UFC network at the time. Spike was, Spike was like, that was, that was almost a marriage. Both those people, both, both those companies completely depended on each other. And I mean, also on Spike, when you're, when your opposition is coal, you know, you can have a 0.8 rating and be fine when you're opposite, when you're, when you're, when your co programming is doing 1.2s and there's always something in Philadelphia, you can't have an ultimate fighter episode, which is doing a 0.6. Yeah. You can't do it. You've got to have good ratings. Yeah. They have to have, they have to make sure that that show isn't a, isn't a stinker. Yeah. Like at this deal, if the deal doesn't go as smoothly as everybody wants, who knows where UFC will wind up. Yeah. So hopefully it, hopefully it works out well. Well, they've got an eight year deal for 90 million. So I mean, they're going to be there for nine years. Yeah. But they're like here, you get half an hour at 3 a.m. for the next seven years. That's going to be pretty garbage. True. And Fox is known to cut shows that they don't like. I still miss Firefly. Okay. So we spend a lot of time on the show, talk about the cursed UFC 133 card from a couple of weeks back. What we didn't talk about was that Rich Franklin and little Nogue, that fight got, got called off because Nogue got injured. Franklin said he was going to fight anyone who wasn't a former contender and wouldn't, it wouldn't take a replacement fight. She'll sign in his piss. And so am I. Yeah. Well, she'll sign in being pissed is, is amusing. Rich Franklin, it was a jerk move. But the thing with Rich Franklin is he doesn't want to make the move to a gatekeeper status. He doesn't want to fight up and comers. He wants to fight guys that are going to get him back in the title shot. He's trying to keep him. I don't think it's relevant. Yeah. I don't think it's realistic. I don't think he can hang at 205 and I don't think he's going to be in the title contention there at any time. I think if former title contenders only fought former title contenders, there'd be no new title contender. Yeah. Exactly. It's a disastrous move. And in a punished Franklin. And in a world where we have guys like Carlos Conda and Miller and guys like this who won't fight anyone at any time, it's unfortunate. Yeah. And this isn't the old UFC where you only had three faces on it. Franklin Forest and Kenny Florian, you know, this is the new UFC where there's tons and tons of options. So you don't have the power that you used to have. Franklin used to be the face and he could come up with almost anything. Yeah. At this point, GSP is the face. Brock Lesnar is the face. Franklin's marketable relativity is not he's what he doesn't have this way. What kind of Bizarro world is this where Tito steps in at the last minute and saves a doom card and frankly a little fight. And there's all those issues with Golden Glory, a little while back where UFC wound up Zufa went up cutting all of the people involved. Guys like Alice Rovary and Marlos Coonin and really everybody who dealt with them because UFC didn't want to work with their management and pay them. So everybody got cut. Golden Glory has now changed their mind and now- Golden Glory buckled. Yeah. Golden Glory. Honestly, anyone who didn't see this coming though, like, okay, if you can't fight a new UFC now, where the hell are you going to go? Are you going to go to your dream? Are you going to go to Bella Torem? I mean, it's not with the money that guys like Alice Rovary want. So yeah. Rovary's management has come out and said, you know what, we're willing to let you pay over him directly and we're completely willing to give you the exclusive deal that they weren't previously to have over and fight only in the UFC. If somebody's better than no money. Exactly. Now, this is a capitulation that, you know, I think that if you get a good deal with overing where he's willing to work for the right amount of money, bring the guy in, I don't like, I think he'll be a good addition to the heavyweight roster, but UFC is the only card in town. Yep. So don't try to play hardball with them because you'll lose. They've got all the chips. Yeah. Bella Tore is a while away. And if overing is already rolled, people like Marliss Conan, she's... Well, honestly, let's be honest, where is Marliss Conan going to go now? Exactly. Yeah. If overing is going to fly... Overing is the dream champion. He's like, no, no, no, don't worry about that. I'll fight exclusively in the UFC. You know, people like Marliss Conan and, you know, Sammy Schilden, whatnot, they got to be coming over. Yeah. They have to. I don't know about Sammy Schilden. Oh, Sammy Schilden. Sammy Schilden. Sammy's got to grapple in game. There's other guys in Golden Glory. As long as he doesn't fight... He's got to be fast. I think he... I'm not sure if he's... I know he's... He was training with him at one point. I don't think he's part of their management team. No, no, no, no. He doesn't know about the same management, but he does train with those guys. We saw he should be his... There's a lot of guys in Golden Glory. I can't think of every single one off the top of my head, but there's a lot of good guys there, so... Oh, that John Inamogai, who may or may never come back. Well, yeah, he was fired, but, I mean, again, if overing is flipped, you should flip. So in this new world where UFC is on a major network and there's no competition, you have to play ball. That's it. Yeah, you have to play ball. So we're looking forward to this weekend where Bell Tour 48 will be showing up. A friend of the show, Cole Conrad will be on it. And then, you know, Pat. Wait, wait, how do we know Cole Conrad? I completely went to slip in my head. Neil Grove. Neil Grove. I got to beat Neil Grove. We're at the front of our show. Ooh, Cole Conrad. We're like Cole Conrad. He's beat Neil Grove. He's a beat Neil Grove. Pat Craig and Marla, so I'm Marla Sandro who we saw are going to fight for the... Oh, of course. If you get a chance, you have to see Sandro. So you've been listening to us at 93.3 CFMU and you can also find us at www.TheHammerMMA.com. See you. Have a good week.